


Gradual Realisations

by saintvic



Category: Life on Mars (UK)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-14
Updated: 2010-12-14
Packaged: 2017-10-13 16:23:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/139289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saintvic/pseuds/saintvic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Annie and Sam have been dating for a while and Sam’s actions and words are still raising questions.......</p><p>Written for the Life on Mars Ficathon 2008. The prompt was: Sam/Annie, Roxy Music, a moment of happiness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gradual Realisations

Tidying her desk Annie thought to herself that it had been a long and utterly tedious day. Nothing big had happened, in fact nothing medium sized or small had happened either, consequently there had been nothing to distract the boys she worked with.

Sam had spent the day running through current case reports, the Guv had supposedly been making headway on his paper work but the snores emanating from his office in the afternoon belied that, and all the others had half-heartedly worked for a bit but soon drifted off into various other activities. Of course now it was approaching five o’clock they had all moved faster than she had seen them do so all day to get to the pub.

Well all of them but Sam. As she turned around from the creaking filing cabinet she saw him lingering by her desk. Almost involuntarily she smiled at him and he returned one of his own. She loved that smile, it was the one that made her feel as though she was the centre of his world, even as she mentally shook her head at the over the top sentiment.

They chatted a bit about the day, covering: how far she had managed to work through the Simmons case, the devastation caused by impromptu game of football that had broken out around lunchtime, that she hadn’t changed her mind from a hour ago and she really didn’t need a lift home, and that Sam was picking her up at eight that night.

They were off to see Superman, which opened tonight at the Odeon. She was really looking forward to seeing it and it seemed like Sam was too. But she couldn’t help noticing how his expression changed as he talked about the film. It appeared as though he was somewhat, well, out of focus.

Gazing almost at her, but in fact over her shoulder slightly, Sam said in, what she could only describe as a detached tone, “yeh there is this really good scene with a helicopter right near the start and the special effects were ground breaking”.

Then, suddenly, he seemed to come back to himself and she noticed that his smile had turned vaguely anxious. So she nodded encouragingly and told Sam she would see him later. With a quick glance round the room he leaned forward and kissed her softly on the lips. Annie let herself fall into the kiss for a moment, feeling a sense of warmth spread throughout her whole being, before pulling back, pushing him out the door, and turning to finish up her work.

 

**********

 

Having finally finished sorting out the debris of the day, and having indulged in a brief chat with Phyllis, Annie grabbed her coat and started to make her way home. As she walked out of the station, successfully ignoring Litton’s leering and dodging Pierson’s attempts to pinch her bum, Annie reflected on what Sam had said about the film. It wasn’t much, but he definitely sounded like he was remembering something rather than looking forward to it.

Over the last year knowing comments like that had happened less and less, but they still slipped through at times. He never mentioned the future explicitly anymore but there were always hints peeking through into everyday events or conversation.

Annie glanced back at the grim looking building and inevitably, as it so often did, her gaze moved up inexorably upwards to the roof. She still remembered talking Sam away from the edge as clearly as if it was yesterday. His conviction that he did not belong in this time and place had been so absolute that she had been sure he would jump.

She remembered the gut clenching fear that she wouldn’t be able to get through to him, that he would step forward rather than back, and that he would be lost to them all. But she had connected with him, even back then there had been something between them. Sam had reached out, moved towards her, and stayed.

Turning away from the station and making her way down the road she reached the bus stop and joined the solemn queue of people waiting there. Determinedly she stopped thinking about Sam and concentrated on the information about the Simmons burglary she had been ploughing through today.

She loved Sam but to be able to cope with the questions he raised and stay in a normal frame of mind sometimes she needed to be able to put them all out of her mind for a while. Constantly dwelling on the uncertainties just made her miserable.

 

********

 

Later in the evening and trying to relax a bit Annie still felt the need to clear her mind and keep it free from questions. She didn’t want to dwell on the conclusions she was coming to. She only wanted to think about the night ahead so she decided to crowd the thoughts out with memories and music.

She carefully skimmed through her collection and found a Roxy Music album. Swaying softly to the music while looking through her wardrobe she remembered a wonderful night out a couple of months back when Sam had surprised her with tickets to see Roxy Music at the Belle Vue.

It had been a fantastic evening. Away from everyone at work it had just been the two of them. Annie loved her job and she knew that at times Sam lived for it. However, sometimes it took over and buried Annie and Sam under DI Tyler and WDC Cartwright. So she cherished these times. The times when the two of them were together as themselves not members of the police.

At dinner the conversation had been easy, the laughter frequent and they had basked in each other’s company. At the concert the atmosphere had been electric and the music compelling. Annie had sung along, tentatively at first, then louder as she grew in confidence, and they had danced along with the rest of the audience.

For a time Sam stood behind her, arms encircling her waist, and she had let her head fall back onto his shoulder. The music had surrounded them, shielded them, and even in that huge crowd she had felt alone with him.

It was a soothing, wonderful memory. She would often recall the contented feeling she had experienced that night. They were together, happy in that moment, revelling in their relationship and the world they lived in. In that moment uncertainty and worry did not exist.

 

********

 

Staring into her bathroom mirror Annie paused in brushing her hair as the conversation with Sam earlier that day came back to her. Sam talked as if he knew what was going to happen in the movie even though there was no way he could have seen it. It hadn’t been shown anywhere, this was the first night it opened, and yet he sounded like he had watched it before.

Troubled she couldn’t help but think about some of the other moments she had noted over the last year. Like the quotes from movies they hadn’t seen, events in the news that didn’t seem to surprise him, and his sometimes amazing luck in picking the right team or person to bet on. An event that always baffled the Guv and the others as his success seemed to come out of nowhere.

But one instance really stuck in Annie’s mind. On another very quiet day Chris had turned on the radio and the two of them had listened to the new releases as they worked. The DJ had announced a new song, saying triumphantly that this was the first time the song had ever been played on UK radio, and they had listened with interest. After a minute or two of the song being played Sam had walked in from the Guv’s office. He had listened, tilted his head slightly, and grinned. Moving up to her side he bent down and had whispered in her ear that he had always loved this song and then he wandered away humming the tune.

And all these moments kept adding up and leading her to one conclusion, one she was trying very hard not to come to. So again she tried to blank her mind and concentrated on the pleasurable memory of Sam’s arms around her, solid, real, and unquestioned.

 

********

 

Later on, ready to go out and sitting on the arm of her sofa, Annie kept telling herself that she was a normal, sensible woman. Her mum might think she was mad for joining the police force. Her cousins may snipe behind her back, and once to her face at Lizzie’s wedding, saying she had ideas above herself by going to university. And half the station thought she was an ambitious tart because she had joined the ranks of the detectives. But Annie knew deep down that if asked to describe herself sensible would top the list.

She ran her hands down her skirt smoothing the minute wrinkles out and reluctantly thought back over the moments where Sam had caused her to question the straightforward nature of the world. Normal and sensible just didn’t seem to apply anymore and she couldn’t put off the conclusion she had reached. Sam did know things before they happened.

One or two times could be a trick. Like knowing someone in the racing community who told him that Red Rum had a good chance of winning, or reading something in a newspaper no one else had seen, or maybe the radio had played the song earlier and had gotten their introduction wrong.

But there were too many of these moments and she had gradually come to the realization that he could be telling the truth. Sam was from the future. How this could be the truth she had no idea. But the subtlety and strangeness of the small moments were much more convincing than any of his outright declarations.

So why wasn’t she panicking? Probably because this wasn’t really a sudden conclusion, it had appeared gradually. And sitting alongside this realization she also had the lingering memory of how right they were together. With a moment of clarity Annie became aware that it was after the disastrous Johns case that everything had changed. When he had asked her, she had said stay, and he had.

He was here for her. Sam’s behaviour had changed after that case and their fledgling relationship had grown stronger and stronger. And despite all the complexities, the confusion and the utter improbability of the situation there was a breathtaking sensation infusing her whole being. She had asked him to stay and he had.

Glancing out the window she saw Sam’s trim figure making its way to the door and she stood to go and meet him. As she did she came to a conclusion. It didn’t matter what else was going on, or that they had a few problems and that too often work got in the way. It didn’t matter what he knew or where he came from. Sam had stayed here for her and that meant everything.


End file.
